Dishonorable Mention: Rolling Stone Corrects the Record

Ed. Note: On March 23, 2017, Rolling Stone magazine published false allegations about Thrive Collective conspiring with Betsy Devos to undermine public education, and using murals and mentoring programs as a pretense for churches to evangelize. Below are our published responses in the magazine and on the website.

1. ONLINE: “Update” posted on Rolling Stone’s website on 4/5/17, appended to the bottom of the original story.

UPDATED: A response from Thrive Collective’s executive director, Jeremy Del Rio.

In “Betsy DeVos’ Holy War,” Janet Reitman alleges that the nonprofit arts and mentoring programs I lead are a “pretense” for churches to “evangelize” in public schools; and that somehow my association with the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative proves that Mrs. DeVos’ supposedly decades-long master plan to undermine public education was working even before her appointment as Education Secretary.

For a lifelong activist who came of age in the 1980s and 90s, I imagined a mention in Rolling Stone as a badge of honor, signaling that a lifetime of grassroots youth and community organizing had captured a wider public consciousness. Never would I have expected the magazine to offer me as Exhibit A in a misinformed conspiracy theory without even giving me an opportunity to comment on allegations before publication.

The pretension here: not once did Ms. Reitman or anyone from Rolling Stone speak to me or even reach out before publishing this defamatory libel. Had she done a rudimentary fact check, she could have met principals and students from twenty Brooklyn schools where we have worked without even leaving her home borough, or one hundred schools citywide plus others nationally. She could have visited fifteen school murals completed in Brooklyn since 2011 (and four currently in production), or thirty-five completed citywide (and thirteen in production).

As far as my personal credentials and relationship with Betsy DeVos are concerned, I thrive building bridges between unlikely allies in the fight for educational justice. I have been a student organizer in Manhattan’s Lower East Side since the 1980s, a minister since 1994, a lawyer since 1999, a professor since 2004, and a graduate and faculty member of the nonpolitical, accredited youth ministry training DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative since 2011. I have briefly met Mrs. DeVos twice, and have never discussed politics or educational policy with her or anyone associated with her political or education-related activism. I have written and spoken extensively on public education reform for the last decade.

None of the school programs I lead feature religious evangelizing of any sort. When religion factors directly into a specific project, like murals that include women wearing hijabs, it is because those symbols inextricably reflect the cultural fabric of the communities that created them. Religion was neither the driving message, nor was it purposely omitted from that expression of community and culture.

Conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, unionized teachers, homeschool parents, American citizens, undocumented immigrants – all are welcome in Thrive’s big tent. Our one condition: do you care about restoring the promise of public education for everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us? If so, then you can fight alongside us any day.

If not, then we’ll respectfully bring the fight to you.

In service,

Jeremy R. Del Rio, Esq.
Executive Director
Thrive Collective

2. IN PRINT: “Letter to the Editor,” 4/8/17

Janet Reitman wrongly alleges that the nonprofit arts and mentoring programs I lead are a “pretense” for churches to “evangelize” in public schools; and that somehow my association with the nonpolitical DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative proves that DeVos’ supposed master plan to undermine public education is working. Never would I have expected the magazine to offer me as Exhibit A in a misinformed conspiracy theory. She should have asked me for comment or talked to the thousands of students, principals, and unionized teachers we serve in 100 public schools everyday. Thrive builds bridges between unlikely allies in the fight for educational justice. None of the programs we lead feature religious evangelizing of any sort.